Lemon, Rind & All

Day 2/365

For years I have aspired to eating only in an 8-11 hour window with eating for the day ending around 7 PM. There have been a couple of glitches. One, I get busy and frequently don’t even start making dinner until 8 PM. And two, I am a crazy night snacker. I could wake up in the morning and not eat for a good part of the day, but when evening hits I make up for it. I mindlessly open the fridge and get particularly noshy around 9 PM.

One of the habits I am wanting to build is allowing my body to digest and rest before bedtime. This has shown to have health benefits and optimize sleep.

Yesterday, I did not plan well. My evening was moving along, processing and crying, and the next thing I knew it was 9 PM, and I was hungry. I was so distracted with all the things that I didn’t grab something to eat in the evening. I thought about what I ate that day and it was quite a bit, so I wasn’t starving starving. I was then trying to assess if this 9 PM hunger was due to habit that my biological clock has been trained to or hunger due to the error of planning on my part. Honestly, it was probably a bit of both.

I am desperately wanting to stick to the new habits that I am trying to build. I really didn’t want to bend on the first day. I understand the concept of having grace as I adjust to new things but I know myself. I can be knocked off into a land of distraction way to easily losing the momentum on my set path. Luckily, what I also know about myself is, as easy going as I can be with little hesitation bending the rules, I can also be surprisingly stubborn and determined. I am tapping in determined Kate for this one. No easy breezy beautiful Cover Girl here, more of a Richard Simmons vibe.

Today was a better day. I was more intentional and mindful of the time and my meals. I am glad I stuck to my intention last night, as it helped me be more mindful today. I am learning. Can you see the theme here? Intentional Mindfulness.

The past two days I have had an Anti-Cancer smoothie from the Beat Cancer Cookbook. It’s mixed berries, kale, nut butter, dates, water, and half a lemon rind and all. I was skeptical about the lemon, rind and all, in a smoothie but I have to tell you it is a totally different experience than just adding lemon juice. It is super yummy. I highly recommend you try it.

I have also been reflecting on my emotional breaking of the dam yesterday and the mood that led up to it. I don’t get scratchy often and yesterday was one of those days. I was proactive in my mood and reached out to people that I had a relationship of safety. I can’t help but think my subconscious knew I needed to release some shit so I could move forward. I didn’t realize at the time that I was standing on a precipice in that scratchy space but I was. I led myself to safe spaces to jump into my real feels so I could move forward on this journey. I am so thankful for those safe spaces. Safe spaces are really important for mental health and good for your physical health by proxy. I am making progress in this whole self-care thing. I am proud of you, Kate Olson Stroud.